Duke Completes First Home Meet on High Note Against William & Mary

DURHAM, North Carolina, November 9. THE Duke University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened their home schedule on a high note Saturday afternoon, sweeping the Tribe of William & Mary.

Duke Press Release

Less than 24 hours after opening ACC competition against NC State and the Miami women, the Duke swimmers returned to the water to host William & Mary in a dual meet Saturday, Nov. 9 at the Taishoff Aquatic Pavilion. The Blue Devil women (3-1, 1-1 ACC) earned a 162-100 victory over the Tribe while the Duke men (2-1, 0-1 ACC) topped their opponent by a 144-118 score in the 2013-14 home opener.

“When we have the opportunity to have competitions back-to-back like that, it’s really simulating what we’re going to do when we get to the conference championship,” said head coach Dan Colella. “They’re going to have to swim incredibly hard for four days, so when we’re presented with an opportunity like this to race on a Friday night and turn around Saturday morning and do it again, it’s something that they’ll learn from.”

The Blue Devils started the morning with a strong statement, winning the men’s and women’s 200-yard medley relay events with a pair of season-best times. In the women’s race, junior Megan McCarroll, senior Christine Wixted, senior Lauren Weaver and freshman Maddie Rusch clocked 1:42.83 while the men’s team of freshman Joey Maginnis, senior Hunter Knight, freshman Dylan Payne and freshman James Peek combined for a mark of 1:31.71.

Individually, Hunter Knight paced the men’s squad with three first-place finishes. The Richmond, Va., native broke his own pool record in the 100 breaststroke with a 55.42 swim and took the 200-yard race with a 2:04.28 clocking. Knight also won the 200 IM later in the meet, tapping the wall at 1:53.05.

A trio of Blue Devils swept the top three places in the women’s breaststroke events, as Christine Wixted was first, graduate student Emily Barber second and freshman Ashleigh Shanley third in the 100 and 200 breaststroke. Shanley also was third in the 200 IM (2:09.61) behind teammates Kiera Molloy (2:08.06) and Liza Bragg (2:09.57).

Duke’s distance swimmers had a solid outing against the Tribe, led by Lindsay Schlichte’s win in the 1,000 freestyle in a season-best 10:28.73. The freshman from Garden City, N.Y., took second in the 500 freestyle (5:07.42) while fellow rookie Brittany Friese was first at 5:06.55. On the men’s side, freshman Bradley Cline notched a season-best mark of 4:40.04 to claim first in the 500 freestyle and added a first-place performance in the 200 freestyle at 1:40.40.

Other double winners on the day included freshman Kaz Takabayashi in the 100 and 200 butterfly and Rusch in the 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly. McCarroll also earned a first-place finish in the 100 backstroke at 56.70. Rusch, sophomore Chelsea Ye, senior Kelly Hagerty and Weaver solidified the win at the end of the meet with a first-place performance in the 400 freestyle relay (3:27.16).

“We challenged the men and women to raise the bar and they did just that,” Colella said. “It was just a really great effort last night, and we knew going into this morning that William & Mary was going to be ready to race and they absolutely brought their ‘A’ game today. It turned out to be an incredible meet.”

The Blue Devil swimmers and divers wrap up the fall portion of their slate Nov. 21-23 at the Nike Cup Invitational in nearby Chapel Hill, N.C.

William & Mary Men’s Press Release

The William and Mary men’s swimming team put up a terrific fight Saturday afternoon at Duke, but ultimately fell to the ACC-rivals 144-118 for its first loss of the season. The Tribe is now 5-1 on the year, while the Blue Devils improved to 2-1 overall.

W&M had five swimmers go over 10 points on the day, and came away with six new entries in the record books. Sophomore Billy Russell (Newport News, Va.) led on both lists, winning the 100 free en route to 16.75 points, and marking his name on the all-time lists four times (in two individual races, and both relays). His winning time in the 100 free was 46.03 seconds, improving him to 10th all-time in school history, and he was a narrow second in the 200 free in 1:40.47, a time that also ranks 10th all-time at W&M.

Russell also anchored both of W&M’s relays, to a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay, and the win in the 400 free relay. The victorious team was freshman Alex Montes de Oca (Orange, Va.), freshman Joe Eiden (White Plains, N.Y.), junior Taegan Clarke (Chappaqua, N.Y.), and Russell, and they combined to swim 3:05.78, the 14th-best time ever for W&M. The medley relay was the first event of the day, and Russell finished out the race in 1:32.18, eighth-best ever, after taking the baton from classmate Will Manion (Haddonfield, N.J.), senior Andrew Strait (Henrico, Va.), and sophomore Justin Barden (Gordonsville, Va.).

Also collecting wins on the day were three more of those outstanding relay swimmers. Eiden won the 1,000 free in 9:48.06, finishing just ahead of classmate Sean Higgins (Wilton, Conn.) who now ranks just outside the top-16 at 9:48.93. Eiden also finished third in the 500 free, with an alliterative 4:44.44. Manion won his signature event, the 100 back, in 50.44 seconds, and also finished second in the 200 back at 1:53.70. The man who beat him in the 200 was Montes de Oca, with an impressive 1:52.10 to leap into the Tribe record books at 11th all-time. Montes de Oca also swam 21.63 seconds in the 50 free to finish third overall.

William and Mary has the next two weeks off to prepare for the fall invitational Nov. 21-23. The Tribe will once again head out to Blacksburg for the prelim/final meet, which serves as both a round-up of the fall and a dress rehearsal for the CAA Championships in February.

William & Mary Women’s Press Release

The William and Mary women’s swimming team won four events against Duke Saturday afternoon and had nearly the same number of total scorers, but fell to the ACC-rivals 162-100. The Tribe is now 4-3 on the year, while the Blue Devils improved to 3-1 overall.

W&M had three all-time top-16 performances, including the meet-opening 200 medley relay. That squad of freshmen Sophie Rittenhouse (London, England) (back) and Jaimie Miller (Houston, Texas) (free), sophomore Courtney Mizerak (Manassas, Va.) (breast), and junior Megan Howard (McLean, Va.) (fly) finished second overall in 1:45.29, which was the 10th-best time in school history. Both of the rookies also swam individual-best times, Rittenhouse in the 100 back where she finished second at 56.73 seconds to rank 10th all-time, and Miller was fourth in the 100 free in 52.41 seconds, ranking her 15th in school history.

The four swimmers who all picked up victories against the Blue Devils included Howard, who was the winner in 23.43 in the 50 free. She also swam 51.62 to finish second in the 100 free on the day. Sophomore Jessie Ustjanauskas (West Hartford, Conn.) won the 200 fly in 2:05.61, and also came back to take second in the 100 fly with a time of 56.73 seconds. Senior Jen Bentley (Jamestown, N.Y.) was the big winner in the 200 free in 1:53.75, before taking third in the 500 free at 5:08.21; and junior Liz Glenn (Greenwood Village, Colo.) won the 200 back in 2:02.44 after finishing fifth in the 100 back at 58.57 seconds.

William and Mary has the next two weeks off to prepare for the fall invitational Nov. 21-23. The Tribe will once again head out to Blacksburg for the prelim/final meet, which serves as both a round-up of the fall and a dress rehearsal for the CAA Championships in February.